The friendly match between Slavia Prague from the Czech Republic and Rakow Czestochowa from Poland turned chaotic on Sunday when the referee decided to abandon the game after ejecting a player.
However, the match continued with a club official taking over as the referee. Austrian referee Lino Heiduck stopped the game after 10 minutes and, after a heated conversation with Rakow midfielder Giannis Papanikolaou, he showed the Greek player a red card.
Despite the red card, which Slavia’s director of strategic communication Jakub Splavec described as being issued for “insults significantly over the edge”, both teams expressed a desire to continue the friendly match with a full squad of 11 players each. However, the referee declined this request.
“According to him, his health was in danger,” Splavec wrote on Twitter.
“After the efforts of the organisers and representatives of both teams to continue the match in the same setting, the referee and his assistants left and refused to return to the field. Even to communicate in any way.”
The game continued after a 10-minute break, with Rakow’s general manager Kamil Waskowski stepping in as the main referee.
Waskowski, who has previous experience as a referee and is licensed for lower-level competitions, was supported by two substitute players.
“One linesman from us, one from Rakow,” Splavec added.
The match continued with Papanikolaou, who had been previously sent off, returning to the field. Slavia, who finished second in the Czech league last year, defeated the Polish champions, who were competing for the first time, with a 2-1 victory thanks to a late goal by Dutch forward Mick van Buren.
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